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February 11, 2007 (Link to Scorecard)

Sri Lanka have pulled off a shocking victory out of nowhere at the Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground in Rajkot in the 2nd ODI of the Hero Honda Cup. Rahul Dravid's team was cruising in their chase of 258, but had lost their way towards the end. Sri Lanka's perseverance in the game had helped them snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They were tottering along when they were put into bat first and their bowling was taken apart during the second innings. But in the end, the match was won by a narrow margin of 5 runs. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and India had to bow down to Sanath Jayasuriya's masterly death bowling in the final over with India managing only 5 of the 11 runs that were required for a win.

The curator of the Rajkot wicket believed that his strip was a 300+ one. However, it was a different one considering the 9 AM start on a winter morning. There was moisture in the wicket considering the fact that there has been some rain in the last few days and the sweating that might have occurred underneath. It was enough reason for Rahul Dravid to insert the Sri Lankans to bat first. India ran into trouble at the start losing Zaheer Khan as well due to a shoulder problem which had got Anil Kumble into the team. Their opposition wanted to test all rounder Nuwan Kulasekara instead of left armer Nuwan Zoysa. In the 3rd over, Munaf Patel bowled a typical McGrath kind of delivery to draw first blood. The inform Sanath Jayasuriya was walking back to the pavilion without causing much damage! Sanath was followed by his young opening partner, Upul Tharanga who was caught at first slip off Sreesanth. India had the visitors in a soup when Munaf and Sreesanth had dislodged the former and the present skippers - Atapattu and Jayawardene respectively before the drinks break. Atapattu had lived dangerously, given not out on two occasions before he was dead infront of the stumps to Munaf. Mahela Jayawardene scored just 4 before nicking Sreesanth behind the stumps to leave his side at 58 for 4.

The Lankans were rescued by a busy partnership between Sangakkara and Dilshan. The runs came at a fair clip with the pitch turning to its true nature as the moisture started getting dried out. It was only in the 36th over that Harbhajan Singh came up with a magical doosra to disturb Dilshan's off stump. By then the recovery was made through the century stand. Dilshan was a satisfied man once he had reached his 8th fifty, it came at the right time with just a day to go before the selectors pick the squad for the World Cup. Russel Arnold, the next man couldn't impress anyone as he played right across to be leg before to Tendulkar. Sangakkara with able support from Farveez Maharoof took Sri Lanka to a fighting 257 for 8. Sangakkara had scored his 6th ODI hundred which was filled with breathtaking strokes towards the latter part of his essay. Sangakkara and Maharoof had taken Anil Kumble to the cleaners in the leggie's final over which went for 16. Sangakkara's 110 came from 127 balls with four sixes to go with the 11 fours. Among the bowlers, Munaf Patel stood out tall with figures of 4 for 49 in 9 overs while his new ball partner, Sreesanth was economical for a change, taking 2 for 39 in 10 overs. Tendulkar did a great job with his swing bowling during the middle overs, conceding just 41 in 9 overs.

The target for India wasn't particularly a big one with the wicket playing very well during the afternoon. However, Farveez Maharoof was in superb touch, getting the ball to seam around. He provided the inroads removing Uthappa to begin with a nasty delivery that just took off to strike the bat handle on its way  to the slips. Skipper Dravid was forced to play onto his stumps by one that came back sharply off the seam from the same bowler. India were in a bit of bother at 29 for 2. Sri Lanka had its share of problems with Lasith Malinga forced out of the attack after an erratic start. The experienced duo of Ganguly and Tendulkar found it much easier facing the medium pace of Nuwan Kulasekara and that got India back on track. Kulasekara was unlucky in not having Tendulkar caught at point by Dilshan. Both Ganguly and Tendulkar played their strokes to put their team in a wonderful position as they exploited the field restrictions in place. Mahela Jayawardene even had to hold back his third powerplay and bring on his spinner Malinga Bandara into the attack. This move had halted India's progress and the two strokemakers in the middle were feeling itchy to go for the big ones. The first to perish was Tendulkar (54 from 61 with 9 fours) who was stumped by some distance as he charged down the track to Bandara only to be beaten by the turn. India lost Ganguly with 104 more to get, the left hander had edged a wide yorker length delivery from Lasith Malinga to the keeper after scoring 62 from 79 (6 fours and a six).

Ganguly's departure brought in Dhoni who was cleaned up by a rapid inswinging yorker from Malinga which luckily turned out to be a no ball! . Virender Sehwag at the other end flirted with danger repeatedly to eventually throw away his wicket playing a cut shot to Malinga Bandara. It was a leg break that was neither short nor was wide enough for that shot resulting in an outside edge. Sehwag departed after scoring a 23-ball 19 in his comeback innings. India was now left with the last recognized pair of batsmen in Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik who batted sensibly to get India closer and closer to the target. Karthik (31 from 49 balls, 1x4) was given out lbw off Lasith Malinga's bowling in the 46th over with India just 23 away from the win. Harbhajan Singh, the next batsman threw his wicket away, slogging needlessly and all of a sudden the task of getting the remaining few runs looked like a difficult one. Lasith Malinga covered up for his erratic spells with a superb final over in which he conceded just the three runs!

The target of 14 from 12 balls now changed to 11 from 6 and Mahela Jayawardene decided to bank on Sanath Jayasuriya to bowl the final over. Jayasuriya's first delivery was smashed to long on by Dhoni who called for two for that and Kumble struggled to make it to be run out. The next two balls were dot balls even though the striker was Dhoni and the equation was now 10 from 3 balls! Dhoni finally got a boundary in the fourth ball as India still had the belief in his abilities to carry them to victory. But the fifth ball from Jayasuriya was miscued by Dhoni (48 from 68 balls, 1x4) to be brilliantly caught by Maharoof who ran backwards to hold onto the ball. Maharoof's catch was even more outstanding as Tharanga was making rapid strides from the sweeper covers to try for the same catch, fortunately both the fielders could avoid any collision. The final ball required six to get and Sreesanth couldn't even get bat to ball to let Sri Lanka win by 5 runs. The Man of the Match was given to none other than Kumar Sangakkara for allowing Sri Lanka, an opportunity to compete to begin with in the match. One of the architects of this Sri Lankan win was leg spinner Malinga Bandara who took two big wickets conceding only 36 runs in his 10 overs. The third match of this series is on the 17th at Goa but before that all eyes will be on the squads that are going to be picked by different countries for next month's mega event.  

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